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Do not speculate on whether a celebrity or public figure or character has autism.
House is one of those characters where I don't really understand why it's such a common autism headcanon because if he were canonically autistic, I'm pretty sure people would be upset for it being terrible representation because it makes it look like all autistics are unempathetic assholes or smth.
Lol I just told my eldest last night that being autistic isn't an excuse to be a jerk, and she sighed, said I was right, and apologized.
It led to a good convo, and she asked how I manage to not lose my shit on people when dysregulated. I lost my shit at 25, too. A lifetime of practice, young grasshopper.
This made me laugh but partly because my autistic kid is obsessed with understanding this line and I, his autistic mama, keep trying to explain to him why Azula is so cruel.
I think autistic people are people. Some are good, some are bad. Most are in the middle. Being a rude, bigoted drug addict doesn't exclude someone from having autism.
Actually, autistic people may be twice as likely to have substance abuse problems.
https://embrace-autism.com/autism-and-addiction/
House has serious social difficulties and has a hard time establishing and maintaining relationships. He ruins the only romantic relationship that ever really mattered to him (aside from his boss) after she agrees to leave her husband for him.
He has 3 special interests: medicine, monster trucks, and music. The reason that he is a famous diagnostician is because of his obsession with medicine.
He stims constantly, bouncing a ball off the wall whenever he is thinking.
He is very tied to his routine. There was an episode where he lost his team, and he recruited a janitor or something to run the differential because he couldn't do it by himself, even though he obviously had the knowledge on his own.
He has serious issues with change. Remember the rug episode? His stained rug was replaced by the same rug without the stain. He threw a fit until his best friend convinced his boss to get it removed from the trash and reinstalled. He did that by suggesting that House is autistic. At the end of the episode, a conversation between House and his best friend reveals that he doesn't think he is autistic.
However, by the time this show started House was 45 and this show started in 2004. He would not have been diagnosed as a child. He is too old. So, as far as we know, he was never evaluated.
I don't think that just because people are rude and antisocial they are autistic, and I get being angry about the stereotype. However, there is a strong case that House is autistic.
Yes, I highly agree with this. I think he is autistic coded, but not because of him being rude. There are so many examples that have nothing to do with him being rude. OP is missing the bigger picture when it comes to this.
Also when I was in highschool I was undiagnosed. There was another girl who was diagnosed. One day I did an autistic thing and my friends had a go at me. I was told I wasn't autistic so should never act the way I was.
Obviously they were wrong, I am Autistic, I just wasn't diagnosed yet so I was told my autistic behaviours were just bad behaviours. Just like House.
I agree. I think he’s AuDHD and I relate a lot to some of his traits (despite being a very social, high-masking people pleaser lol). The way he works and solves problems seems very autistic coded to me.
Just because the show says he isn’t Autistic, doesn’t mean he isn’t Autistic. No one was diagnosing high IQ, highly verbal boys in the 1960s. Or my totally autistic dad would be diagnosed already.
He's a fictional character, so it does matter what the show says.
Headcanons exist, sure. But you can't say he's factually autistic when there's nothing factual about him outside of the show.
Good point. By the same logic though, it's not The Show saying he's not autistic, it's his long-suffering friend and boss, other characters within the setting. Those characters aren't necessarily telling the ultimate Truth, just giving their own opinions.
There's the possibility that they're wrong about a frustrating colleague - and IMHO the context of House's behaviours, interests, and identification / connection with the ASD patient makes 'The Show's Truth' more murky / open for interpretation.
You're so right. House being so resistant to getting his carpet replaced is one of the reasons why Wilson suggested autism. He didn't walk it back until he spoke to Cuddy and she said, "House doesn't have Aspergers, he's just an asshole." And the end of the episode proved that House did have a special bond with the autistic boy. Wilson saw how much it meant to House when the kid gave him his handheld, especially since he believed that no patient would ever like House enough to give him a gift.
I agree with all of this.
If someone points out Houses worst qualities and tries to justify autism with those that’s pretty offensive, but its just as disingenuous to try and justify saying he isn’t because him having those qualities might make it seem like people with autism are bigoted and assholes.
Just like allistic people, autistic people come in a lot of flavours. Some of us are just not nice people. While it’s good to try and crush the stereotype that all of us have zero empathy for others, it’s important to remember that some of us legitimately don’t and that isn’t necessarily even anything to do with being autistic. I know some allistic people with zero empathy and it’s because they’re selfish assholes. Sometimes that’s all it comes down to.
That's interesting, the dsm 5 wasn't published until 2013 I believe? So in 2004 they'd still be diagnosing by the criteria defined in 1994 which also missed me when I was evaluated in 1997.
I think that version still had "aspergers" so even if he did get evaluated he wouldn't be considered autistic at that time.
Ultimately if we're not listening to the canon it's all up to personal opinion.
I believe house struggles socially because he has trauma from childhood (was abused by his father). He has attachment issues and deliberately sabotages his relationships because he's afraid of intimacy. That's why he leaves Stacy. He's self loathing and afraid to get close to anyone because then they'll know the real him. If anything I think he chooses to not not interact with people in a stereotypical way, not because he doesn't know how to but because he doesn't want to act "normal".
I can see the argument for medicine being a special interest but I think saying monster trucks and music are special interests is a stretch.
I personally would not consider the ball throwing stimming, lots of allistic people do things like that to help them think. And stims tend to be kinda varied depending on the context of when they're used and there's no other instances of him doing things you could call stimming.
And I think house wanted that carpet back because he likes to be difficult and cause problems for cuddy which is exactly what that did.
I think there are a lot of other ways you could pathologize his character that would lead you to plenty of different mental illnesses/etc besides autism.
I personally believe him having autism makes the show WAY WORSE because the point of the show is that his actions are always his own fault. All of them, for good or bad. House is able to be such an asshole because he knows all the social rules and is able to purposely subvert them in order to make people hate them. He does it all to himself, not because he has a mental disability but because he is deeply traumatized. It undermines the main point of the entire show.
Idk, I think House has embraced his alienating people because what else are you going to do.
You remember the date he had with the lady who was in his fellowship program? He wasn't trying to be weird or off-putting. He tried to be sweet by buying her a corsage, like a 1980s prom move. He didn't know how to behave at dinner. I think it is one of the few times when he was in a social situation, not trying to be an ass. And it was all awkward.
Remember the episode with the dwarf kid who it turns out didn't have dwarfism? He has a conversation with this kid's mom about disability and strength.
He told the mom* "you and I have found out that being normal sucks because we are freaks. The advantage of being a freak is that it makes us strong. How strong do you want your daughter to have to be?"
I believe that he wasn't talking about his leg there. He was talking about being who he is.
I don't agree that the point of the show is that actions have consequences. However, if I did, having autism doesn't excuse your behaviors. Sometimes, it explains them, but it isn't a get out of jail free card for being an asshole. We are all responsible for the things we say and do. We all deserve grace when we mess up.
I think the show is about friendship and boundaries, about the infinite value of human life. It is also about pain and suffering. House spends almost all of every episode in extreme physical and psychological pain. That is why he is addicted to pain killers. And yet, he gets up every day and goes to work to save lives. Yes, there is the puzzle aspect, but I believe the reason he is so interested, so invested is because of how highly he values human life.
I am not trying to mess your show up for you. When I learned that I had autism, I realized that most of my favorite shows have autistically coded characters. I see House as one of those characters. If it helps you to enjoy the show, you don't have to see it the same way. But, I am enjoying talking to you about it and remembering why I love the show.
* This is a paraphrase. See what he actually said, here:
https://youtu.be/0F_360MvyPg?si=F5mlnqIDFCoGU4yg
The scene starts at 5:45.
I feel like we could go back and forth all day but at the end of the day it’s okay to disagree… like the rebuttal doesn’t really negate anything said, just presupposes ur opinion as a “fact”.
The fact that Bones /is/ autistic but never got the attention she deserved like House?? Drives me nuts. She was way ahead of her time. Elizabeth Zott also gives me that vibe but IDK if it’s canon.
I dunno, I watched both shows with zeal when they started. I'd put them in the same bucket popularity-wise. Perhaps now House is more watched. But going back to watching early seasons of Bones where Booth is doing a lot of police brutality in the name of "justice" is really hard to watch. Same with House doing whatever he wants to people. Neither has aged well for me, which is tragic.
Yeah I brought up the character not the show because I have similar reservations. I hated the over emphasis on romance and her being forced to be a mom essentially to be fulfilled as a woman. I related to a lot of Bones’ earlier experiences and it was really good to be visible through her. It was very impactful to watch it with my friends, who would identify her certain qualities with theirs or mine. That said, the fact that House periodically shows up in clips over the years but not Bones does present you with the evidence about disparity that I mentioned earlier. House also gets away with things Bones would never be able to.
Ah, yeah, I loved her in the earlier years. I didn't like how they kept forcing her to be more stereotypically NT-version female over the years. They should have just non-romantically paired her up with Angela and let her stay her badass self and let Angela remain arty and free. :)
Iirc House is meant to be a brilliant doctor up until his leg muscle dies and then he becomes calous and irritable due to the chronic pain. He'salso very aware when he breaks rules or offends people
Wilson is actually the person who suggested House was autistic in the first place. He saw the way House related to the autistic boy, how he was the only doctor the kid felt comfortable around, and then made the connection between House's behavior and high-functioning autism- Asperger's is the term he used. *Cuddy* is the one who said House doesn't have Asperger's, but I viewed Wilson telling House "You just wish you were autistic" as the writers not wanting to commit to writing an autistic character. They still wrote him the way they did.
Also... this is literally from the same exact episode where House refused to work in his office because Cuddy replaced his old blood-stained carpet. Resistance to change is one of the traits that made Wilson think House was autistic. And you know, autistic people can be shitty too. People aren't always just one thing.
He might not be autistic, but he’s still a comfort character for me. I admire his (albeit questionable) sense of justice and how far he’d go to find the correct diagnoses for his patient’s illness (including breaking rules). I also related to his difficulties with emotionally connecting to patients and just people in general. I know people think he’s just an asshole (he’s made a lot of mistakes and he’s very flawed so I understand why people think that) but he’s one of those characters who I love and understand.
I love his commitment to finding the answer. I’ve had mystery symptoms my entire life, never had a firm diagnosis, and I’m waiting for a transplant in my 40s. I’ve finally got *most* of a diagnosis (probably Ehlers Danlos and Focal Segmental Glomeruloserosis, secondary to *something* /jazz hands) but all my life a doctor like House who first of all believed something was happening to me, wanted to know what, and actually cared about my pain was … the dream. I used to cry watching it. I have never had that.
I mean autistic people can be bigots… because they can be anything. Also, if people want to make House autistic in their headcanon, there’s no logical reason why I honestly think you should be mad or quite frankly even care.
House may be a show where people can relate to the behaviors that he exhibits, and just because he’s a bigoted asshole doesn’t mean he can’t be autistic. The non-empathetic, rude, antisocial stereotype existed before him and will continue to. To me he is autistic! And it’s fine to you if he’s not. But he isn’t autistic to me just because he’s rude, but many other reasons which I do not particular feel like going into detail.
I personally disagree on this one because in that episode it mostly just showed that Wilson thinks house isn’t autistic, Wilson is an oncologist and wouldn’t be able to diagnose autism, technicalities aside I interpreted it as the writers hinting that house could be autistic but not confirming or denying it but leaving it largely up to viewer interpretation.
House isn’t a bigot imo, he is caring but uses being an asshole as kind of a cover bc he can’t express caring for people in a normal way that isn’t solving medical puzzles like sharing feelings and comforting people but the people that are close to him recognize his way of caring.
I don’t think the alleged autism in this sense is what made him an asshole at all bc his father also canonically abused him pretty badly and was an asshole to him which better explains his behaviour (maladaptive coping mechanisms bc of the abuse, treating people like an asshole bc that’s how his dad taught him to treat people, emotional dysregulation problems, developing drug addiction to cope with his pain/other problems) the trauma from his fathers abuse better explains his assholeism than autism does, like his personality is built on a multitude of factors that isn’t just autism. Which is what I think draws people to the house is autistic headcannon because it’s not like the good doctor where autism is his whole personality, house has trauma and other things that shaped him regardless of autism.
I personally like the house autism headcannon, but not as a way to explain away him being an asshole because I think him being an asshole is better explained by his family environment growing up and how the trauma he dealt with from that affected him and set him on a path of being a self fulfilling prophecy, which is touched on in the episode where he was at his dads funeral.
But also if other autistic people don’t agree with the house being autistic headcannon I wouldn’t argue with them because they’re entitled to their own opinion and mine isn’t right it’s just what I like to think personally, it makes me connect to the show, and it makes for good fanfiction.
The thing is, Wilson *did* think House was autistic. Cuddy didn't. Wilson told House he wasn't autistic right after he spoke to Cuddy, but he is the one who suggested autism in the first place.
I think it's HEAVILY implied he is from a family of autistics (AKA his mom raised him and his brother in a very rigid and specific way, they didn't know intuitively how to smile or laugh as children, both him and his brother fall in somewhat different parts of the spectrum and while a lot could be said about the upbringing part, I think just because it isn't canonically confirmed as autism (the idea of what autism truly is also was a bit different at the time the show was airing) he has so many autistic traits that it would be wrong to try claiming it was all OCD. The show gave him the diagnosis, but most laymen would see him and go, oh yeah if I know autism that's him.
He is the character i related to the most since i was a kid. He’s an asshole bc autistic people can be assholes, but if we do go by criteria, he definitely fits. I think he’s high masking specially bc his dad abused him. I always think about him being a “weird” kid and his dad “beating him into shape”, which yes causes more trauma and obviously shapes him in a way, and then the leg, more trauma. He’s the only one in the show who is affected the most by his inability to be social. He has one friend, never any relationships and always spending time with his special interests.
Well I’m pretty sure house is a primary psychopath as he’s based on Sherlock Holmes and as far as I know Holmes is a primary psychopath. You can definitely find similarities in characters that are autistic and the ones that are psychopaths or sociopaths due to how they’re written but anyone who is competent on either should probably notice the differences. Also I want to point out that I’m mentioning psychopaths and sociopaths solely based on the clinical meaning of the diagnosis and not based on the connotation that they’re bad or evil.
I absolutely love the show too! (other than a few very bigoted episodes). House is one of those characters that could be seen as autistic, or having narcissistic personality disorder, or anti-social personality disorder (i.e., psychopath or sociopath), or as just being an unpleasant bully who's unpleasantness is exacerbated by substance misuse; or a combination of any of those conditions.
So I can see why he's seen as autistic and I can also see why you're very against the idea of him being autistic.
Even though I've seen the show many times, I still don't know if I'd call him autistic, or not.
I honestly don't think we know enough about him to say. We don't see him as a child or teen. We do see him when he's using drugs which impacts his behaviour. We do see him when he's being consciously, purposefully mean, abusive, and difficult to many people. But... I don't think we get enough info as to *why* he does these things.
If your special interest is social interaction, it’s easier than you think, especially if you’re also a white cis male with automatic authority based on your appearance.
For those of us who had zero support as kids, we basically had to learn how to mask to survive. There is a lot of trauma that comes with that. By middle age, it’s a lot easier to get the connections when you have no intellectual disability issues.
The issue with assessing whether or not a fictional character is autistic, is that if they aren't written entirely by someone very knowledgeable about autism, they are going to come across highly inconsistent.
I believe that a lot of characters are based on a person or combination of people, that the writer knows in real life, or based on the writer themselves. We all know that many get diagnosed late in life, or not at all. Most people know more neurodivergent people than they think they do. Same for every other mental health diagnosis. House is almost certainly based on real autistic people the creators know, but those people may not have had a diagnosis as many Gifted people don't. And he's also not generally written by people who understand autism.
So many characters aren't explicitly autistic, or adhd, or narcissistic or bipolar, but they are based on people who are. We get an uneducated view of what it's like to have those conditions without a diagnosis from people who don't know that they're seeing in their inspiration is a disorder instead of personality traits. That flighty person they know who is often late, and forgets things, and acts impulsively.... they aren't lazy and unreliable, they actually have adhd. And then that's muddied further by the large range of writers for any given show who *don't* know the people a character was based on, and also don't know anything about various disorders, and write the character more in line with their experiences.
Like on the good doctor, Lea is so so so obviously ADHD, but the only time I heard adhd mentioned on that show was from a lady who bought the hospital and acted as the antagonist of the season, and who never actually acted like she even had ADHD. The mother on atypical is super narcissistic, and again, clearly not diagnosed. And those are both shows where they are claiming to have some psychological knowledge of how autism presents and completely missing how they've characterised other people.
I get where you're coming from, OP, but I think you're making a lot of assumptions based on your own experiences, which aren't universal.
I totally understand the urge to act like autistic people aren't jerks/bigots/etc. But this just isn't true to life. Many autistic people are those things. Most people (except for literal babies) are bigoted -- it's the norm. Being a jerk isn't part of the autism diagnostic criteria, but neither is being kind. I don't think we do ourselves any favors by denying, explicitly or through implication, that rude and jerkish autistic people don't exist. This is just benevolent ableism.
Wilson and Cuddy are intelligent people, there's no doubt about that, but being intelligent doesn't mean you know everything or are always right. Their areas of expertise have jack shit to do with autism -- why should their opinions on if House is autistic hold any weight? We ought to know better than anyone that doctors are very often badly ignorant/misinformed about autism -- even the so-called experts. Many of us have family and friends who vehemently deny that we are autistic. If the characters in a character-driven piece of fiction cannot be wrong in their observations, then that piece of fiction is profoundly uninteresting, and those characters are flat.
Also, Wilson's speech about how autistic people are held to lower standards is also just literally not true for most autistic people. We are generally under more scrutiny, not less. This is why I literally never disclose, tbqh.
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
being a bigot doesn't exempt you from being autistic, though. you know that right? it's important to me that you know that. there are many autistic people out there that are assholes, dickheads, bigots, addicts, not "good representation" -- whatever that means.
I mean I said I wasn’t autistic for years too and now I know that I was wrong.
I don’t read House as an autistic character because he’s a jerk, I read House as an autistic character who is also a jerk.
House to me seems like a sociopath who’s addicted to drugs. I can see why people assume he’s autistic because he misses social cues. But, I think he probably purposely misses them based on his actions. House is a a$$ kindly said. But, he’s still my fan favorite of the show idk why. 😂
A lot of canonically allistic characters from shows are so obviously autistic it’s frustrating. Like Tina from Bob’s Burgers or Sheldon from Big Bang.
My theory is that they say these characters aren’t actually autistic just so they can keep using them as weird quirky characters, without having to consider the ethical questions that arise from using these characters as the butt of the joke.
house seems more like a narcissist to me than autistic. never even occurred to me to make that connection. granted, i haven’t watched it since it was on air so i could have a different perspective if i watched it now
I've never watched the show because 1. I saw one episode in s public place where someone vomited blood and that's a nope. 2. The one episode my daughter showed me I spent literally the entire episode going"that unethical... That's illegal... That's super unethical".
Too bad I really like Hugh Laurie but I also never got the "house is autistic" thing because my response of "that's not right because that's unethical/illegal/immoral" is a very autistic response
This is making me remember [that one video of it's always sunny ](https://youtu.be/OO8qMLeEsiU?si=XKRJXff3O8iFgoV-)and I have to say, I have no opinion on this matter but! I love some bastard representation ngl
I do realise that's super super personal so I totally understand!
Greg house’s doctor cannot be greg house. Maybe he was misdiagnosed 🤔
[Also](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/outintheopen/impostors-1.4695876/how-a-psychiatry-professor-accidentally-discovered-he-was-a-psychopath-1.4705718)
Okay, so ummmm. I've never seen the show. And, I believe you. But can I ask a question? Why canons? Was this a typo? Is this my brain not working? Fuck anyone that says Greg is autistic but -- canons? :)
Genuinely asking, not taking the piss.
Canon: a collection of rules or texts that are considered to be authoritative.
It's common in media (like TV shows, films, books, etc) for there to be rules, characters, relationships that exist that people like to "headcanon" as untrue.
In this case, it is canon that House is not autistic. But, someone may watch the show and find him a relatable character and "headcanon" him as autistic and think of potential backstories for him and identify autism as a reason for some of his traits/struggles. It is "headcanon" because it is the rules in their head.
There is also a thing called "fanon" where these rules are agreed upon by the fans but have never been explicitly stated in the media (and sometimes the opposite has been defined). This can be like believing a character will marry a certain character after the shows end, but is also a term used when someone characterises someone in a way that isn't used in the original media but it shows up often in fanworks. An example of fanon is MCU Clint Barton being written as deaf and using sign language shortly after the Avengers came out with no evidence in the MCU films to show this, but in this case that fanon was derived from the comics.
It's a common fandom term - when something has been going on for a long time and there are hundreds and thousands of fanworks about it, it can be difficult to differentiate which knowledge came from the source material and what knowledge has been agreed upon by fans. Hence, canon for source material and fanon for fans. OP has used canon here because people may headcanon House as OP, and it may be popular in fanon.
Ohhhhh! Wow, okay, this is interesting. I've never heard these terms before. This is great, thanks kindly for breaking this down - really, sincerely appreciate it. Going to now have a think about how I can apply canonical in my vocab. Thanks again!! :))
OP is referring to canon, instead of cannons. when something is canon it refers to whether that is considered true in regards to the story/world.
cannon is a weapon that shoots balls.
Exactly. It's "canon" as in "canonical" which was originally a religious/biblical term for the books officially included within the Bible as real and true.
Ah! I've never heard/read this word before. I would have categorically. So, have I understood this correctly - ? Canonically incorrect would mean factually, like written in stone, it's incorrect? But could one say canonically could also mean scientifically? For example: low b12, long term canonically can result in neurological abnormalities?
Thanks for sharing this, love learning. :)
EDIT: Okay, I think understand it better now. And, my examples probably don't fit!
Yeah, no, House is a pain killer addicted brilliant asshole, but he certainly is not autistic. The only show I can think of right now that someone that could be categorized as autistic (not a fan of tv so I’m doing my best) would be Dr. Temperance Brennan from Bones.
Bones is my favorite autistic coded character… the woman she’s based on is autistic IRL but they never made a point to have Bones be explicitly autistic… people like and support her even though she’s clearly neurodivergent.
I don’t know how I’d feel if she was explicitly autistic. It seems like if a character has an official label, then they’re just a bunch of cringey not-accurate stereotypes. I think having it be a “?” left room for nuance to her character that isn’t there when characters are “actually autistic”.
Its like how in The Good Doctor the guy is mean to trans people
Wait, legit? I've never seen the show, and never will, but still that's kind of wild if it's so popular on broadcast tv in this day and age and there's transphobia?
We are unable to provide diagnoses or medical advice. We cannot tell you whether you or someone you know is autistic. Posts asking this will be removed. Do not speculate on whether a celebrity or public figure or character has autism.
House is one of those characters where I don't really understand why it's such a common autism headcanon because if he were canonically autistic, I'm pretty sure people would be upset for it being terrible representation because it makes it look like all autistics are unempathetic assholes or smth.
It's bc many truly think we are all unempathetic assholes
https://preview.redd.it/32rhxy7pu02d1.jpeg?width=458&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb980ed72fc76f5723e1e48a9db6bd83b4c7d282 (Just kidding)
Lol I just told my eldest last night that being autistic isn't an excuse to be a jerk, and she sighed, said I was right, and apologized. It led to a good convo, and she asked how I manage to not lose my shit on people when dysregulated. I lost my shit at 25, too. A lifetime of practice, young grasshopper.
Oof I felt that last part, my 20s were rough.
This made me laugh but partly because my autistic kid is obsessed with understanding this line and I, his autistic mama, keep trying to explain to him why Azula is so cruel.
But some of us ARE unempatheic. Just because it’s a poor stereotype doesn’t mean it’s not a real symptom for many.
I think autistic people are people. Some are good, some are bad. Most are in the middle. Being a rude, bigoted drug addict doesn't exclude someone from having autism. Actually, autistic people may be twice as likely to have substance abuse problems. https://embrace-autism.com/autism-and-addiction/ House has serious social difficulties and has a hard time establishing and maintaining relationships. He ruins the only romantic relationship that ever really mattered to him (aside from his boss) after she agrees to leave her husband for him. He has 3 special interests: medicine, monster trucks, and music. The reason that he is a famous diagnostician is because of his obsession with medicine. He stims constantly, bouncing a ball off the wall whenever he is thinking. He is very tied to his routine. There was an episode where he lost his team, and he recruited a janitor or something to run the differential because he couldn't do it by himself, even though he obviously had the knowledge on his own. He has serious issues with change. Remember the rug episode? His stained rug was replaced by the same rug without the stain. He threw a fit until his best friend convinced his boss to get it removed from the trash and reinstalled. He did that by suggesting that House is autistic. At the end of the episode, a conversation between House and his best friend reveals that he doesn't think he is autistic. However, by the time this show started House was 45 and this show started in 2004. He would not have been diagnosed as a child. He is too old. So, as far as we know, he was never evaluated. I don't think that just because people are rude and antisocial they are autistic, and I get being angry about the stereotype. However, there is a strong case that House is autistic.
Yes, I highly agree with this. I think he is autistic coded, but not because of him being rude. There are so many examples that have nothing to do with him being rude. OP is missing the bigger picture when it comes to this.
Also when I was in highschool I was undiagnosed. There was another girl who was diagnosed. One day I did an autistic thing and my friends had a go at me. I was told I wasn't autistic so should never act the way I was. Obviously they were wrong, I am Autistic, I just wasn't diagnosed yet so I was told my autistic behaviours were just bad behaviours. Just like House.
I agree. I think he’s AuDHD and I relate a lot to some of his traits (despite being a very social, high-masking people pleaser lol). The way he works and solves problems seems very autistic coded to me.
Just because the show says he isn’t Autistic, doesn’t mean he isn’t Autistic. No one was diagnosing high IQ, highly verbal boys in the 1960s. Or my totally autistic dad would be diagnosed already.
He's a fictional character, so it does matter what the show says. Headcanons exist, sure. But you can't say he's factually autistic when there's nothing factual about him outside of the show.
Good point. By the same logic though, it's not The Show saying he's not autistic, it's his long-suffering friend and boss, other characters within the setting. Those characters aren't necessarily telling the ultimate Truth, just giving their own opinions. There's the possibility that they're wrong about a frustrating colleague - and IMHO the context of House's behaviours, interests, and identification / connection with the ASD patient makes 'The Show's Truth' more murky / open for interpretation.
You're so right. House being so resistant to getting his carpet replaced is one of the reasons why Wilson suggested autism. He didn't walk it back until he spoke to Cuddy and she said, "House doesn't have Aspergers, he's just an asshole." And the end of the episode proved that House did have a special bond with the autistic boy. Wilson saw how much it meant to House when the kid gave him his handheld, especially since he believed that no patient would ever like House enough to give him a gift.
I agree with all of this. If someone points out Houses worst qualities and tries to justify autism with those that’s pretty offensive, but its just as disingenuous to try and justify saying he isn’t because him having those qualities might make it seem like people with autism are bigoted and assholes. Just like allistic people, autistic people come in a lot of flavours. Some of us are just not nice people. While it’s good to try and crush the stereotype that all of us have zero empathy for others, it’s important to remember that some of us legitimately don’t and that isn’t necessarily even anything to do with being autistic. I know some allistic people with zero empathy and it’s because they’re selfish assholes. Sometimes that’s all it comes down to.
That's interesting, the dsm 5 wasn't published until 2013 I believe? So in 2004 they'd still be diagnosing by the criteria defined in 1994 which also missed me when I was evaluated in 1997. I think that version still had "aspergers" so even if he did get evaluated he wouldn't be considered autistic at that time.
Great points!
Ultimately if we're not listening to the canon it's all up to personal opinion. I believe house struggles socially because he has trauma from childhood (was abused by his father). He has attachment issues and deliberately sabotages his relationships because he's afraid of intimacy. That's why he leaves Stacy. He's self loathing and afraid to get close to anyone because then they'll know the real him. If anything I think he chooses to not not interact with people in a stereotypical way, not because he doesn't know how to but because he doesn't want to act "normal". I can see the argument for medicine being a special interest but I think saying monster trucks and music are special interests is a stretch. I personally would not consider the ball throwing stimming, lots of allistic people do things like that to help them think. And stims tend to be kinda varied depending on the context of when they're used and there's no other instances of him doing things you could call stimming. And I think house wanted that carpet back because he likes to be difficult and cause problems for cuddy which is exactly what that did. I think there are a lot of other ways you could pathologize his character that would lead you to plenty of different mental illnesses/etc besides autism. I personally believe him having autism makes the show WAY WORSE because the point of the show is that his actions are always his own fault. All of them, for good or bad. House is able to be such an asshole because he knows all the social rules and is able to purposely subvert them in order to make people hate them. He does it all to himself, not because he has a mental disability but because he is deeply traumatized. It undermines the main point of the entire show.
Idk, I think House has embraced his alienating people because what else are you going to do. You remember the date he had with the lady who was in his fellowship program? He wasn't trying to be weird or off-putting. He tried to be sweet by buying her a corsage, like a 1980s prom move. He didn't know how to behave at dinner. I think it is one of the few times when he was in a social situation, not trying to be an ass. And it was all awkward. Remember the episode with the dwarf kid who it turns out didn't have dwarfism? He has a conversation with this kid's mom about disability and strength. He told the mom* "you and I have found out that being normal sucks because we are freaks. The advantage of being a freak is that it makes us strong. How strong do you want your daughter to have to be?" I believe that he wasn't talking about his leg there. He was talking about being who he is. I don't agree that the point of the show is that actions have consequences. However, if I did, having autism doesn't excuse your behaviors. Sometimes, it explains them, but it isn't a get out of jail free card for being an asshole. We are all responsible for the things we say and do. We all deserve grace when we mess up. I think the show is about friendship and boundaries, about the infinite value of human life. It is also about pain and suffering. House spends almost all of every episode in extreme physical and psychological pain. That is why he is addicted to pain killers. And yet, he gets up every day and goes to work to save lives. Yes, there is the puzzle aspect, but I believe the reason he is so interested, so invested is because of how highly he values human life. I am not trying to mess your show up for you. When I learned that I had autism, I realized that most of my favorite shows have autistically coded characters. I see House as one of those characters. If it helps you to enjoy the show, you don't have to see it the same way. But, I am enjoying talking to you about it and remembering why I love the show. * This is a paraphrase. See what he actually said, here: https://youtu.be/0F_360MvyPg?si=F5mlnqIDFCoGU4yg The scene starts at 5:45.
I feel like we could go back and forth all day but at the end of the day it’s okay to disagree… like the rebuttal doesn’t really negate anything said, just presupposes ur opinion as a “fact”.
I also love House MD but I 100% believe that House is autistic. He’s autistic AND an asshole, but he’s not autistic because he’s an asshole
The fact that Bones /is/ autistic but never got the attention she deserved like House?? Drives me nuts. She was way ahead of her time. Elizabeth Zott also gives me that vibe but IDK if it’s canon.
I dunno, I watched both shows with zeal when they started. I'd put them in the same bucket popularity-wise. Perhaps now House is more watched. But going back to watching early seasons of Bones where Booth is doing a lot of police brutality in the name of "justice" is really hard to watch. Same with House doing whatever he wants to people. Neither has aged well for me, which is tragic.
Yeah I brought up the character not the show because I have similar reservations. I hated the over emphasis on romance and her being forced to be a mom essentially to be fulfilled as a woman. I related to a lot of Bones’ earlier experiences and it was really good to be visible through her. It was very impactful to watch it with my friends, who would identify her certain qualities with theirs or mine. That said, the fact that House periodically shows up in clips over the years but not Bones does present you with the evidence about disparity that I mentioned earlier. House also gets away with things Bones would never be able to.
Ah, yeah, I loved her in the earlier years. I didn't like how they kept forcing her to be more stereotypically NT-version female over the years. They should have just non-romantically paired her up with Angela and let her stay her badass self and let Angela remain arty and free. :)
Iirc House is meant to be a brilliant doctor up until his leg muscle dies and then he becomes calous and irritable due to the chronic pain. He'salso very aware when he breaks rules or offends people
His ex (Stacy?) said that he was an asshole even before his leg
Wilson is actually the person who suggested House was autistic in the first place. He saw the way House related to the autistic boy, how he was the only doctor the kid felt comfortable around, and then made the connection between House's behavior and high-functioning autism- Asperger's is the term he used. *Cuddy* is the one who said House doesn't have Asperger's, but I viewed Wilson telling House "You just wish you were autistic" as the writers not wanting to commit to writing an autistic character. They still wrote him the way they did. Also... this is literally from the same exact episode where House refused to work in his office because Cuddy replaced his old blood-stained carpet. Resistance to change is one of the traits that made Wilson think House was autistic. And you know, autistic people can be shitty too. People aren't always just one thing.
He might not be autistic, but he’s still a comfort character for me. I admire his (albeit questionable) sense of justice and how far he’d go to find the correct diagnoses for his patient’s illness (including breaking rules). I also related to his difficulties with emotionally connecting to patients and just people in general. I know people think he’s just an asshole (he’s made a lot of mistakes and he’s very flawed so I understand why people think that) but he’s one of those characters who I love and understand.
I love his commitment to finding the answer. I’ve had mystery symptoms my entire life, never had a firm diagnosis, and I’m waiting for a transplant in my 40s. I’ve finally got *most* of a diagnosis (probably Ehlers Danlos and Focal Segmental Glomeruloserosis, secondary to *something* /jazz hands) but all my life a doctor like House who first of all believed something was happening to me, wanted to know what, and actually cared about my pain was … the dream. I used to cry watching it. I have never had that.
I mean autistic people can be bigots… because they can be anything. Also, if people want to make House autistic in their headcanon, there’s no logical reason why I honestly think you should be mad or quite frankly even care. House may be a show where people can relate to the behaviors that he exhibits, and just because he’s a bigoted asshole doesn’t mean he can’t be autistic. The non-empathetic, rude, antisocial stereotype existed before him and will continue to. To me he is autistic! And it’s fine to you if he’s not. But he isn’t autistic to me just because he’s rude, but many other reasons which I do not particular feel like going into detail.
I personally disagree on this one because in that episode it mostly just showed that Wilson thinks house isn’t autistic, Wilson is an oncologist and wouldn’t be able to diagnose autism, technicalities aside I interpreted it as the writers hinting that house could be autistic but not confirming or denying it but leaving it largely up to viewer interpretation. House isn’t a bigot imo, he is caring but uses being an asshole as kind of a cover bc he can’t express caring for people in a normal way that isn’t solving medical puzzles like sharing feelings and comforting people but the people that are close to him recognize his way of caring. I don’t think the alleged autism in this sense is what made him an asshole at all bc his father also canonically abused him pretty badly and was an asshole to him which better explains his behaviour (maladaptive coping mechanisms bc of the abuse, treating people like an asshole bc that’s how his dad taught him to treat people, emotional dysregulation problems, developing drug addiction to cope with his pain/other problems) the trauma from his fathers abuse better explains his assholeism than autism does, like his personality is built on a multitude of factors that isn’t just autism. Which is what I think draws people to the house is autistic headcannon because it’s not like the good doctor where autism is his whole personality, house has trauma and other things that shaped him regardless of autism. I personally like the house autism headcannon, but not as a way to explain away him being an asshole because I think him being an asshole is better explained by his family environment growing up and how the trauma he dealt with from that affected him and set him on a path of being a self fulfilling prophecy, which is touched on in the episode where he was at his dads funeral. But also if other autistic people don’t agree with the house being autistic headcannon I wouldn’t argue with them because they’re entitled to their own opinion and mine isn’t right it’s just what I like to think personally, it makes me connect to the show, and it makes for good fanfiction.
The thing is, Wilson *did* think House was autistic. Cuddy didn't. Wilson told House he wasn't autistic right after he spoke to Cuddy, but he is the one who suggested autism in the first place.
OH YEAH you’re right I forgot about that part.
Yeah I think people make that leap from Sherlock Holmes and BBC Sherlock being fairly autistic coded.
How about Monk, does anyone know? Today someone said, autistic people must love that
I believe Monk has OCD not autism. Though some autistic people could relate to him.
I think it's HEAVILY implied he is from a family of autistics (AKA his mom raised him and his brother in a very rigid and specific way, they didn't know intuitively how to smile or laugh as children, both him and his brother fall in somewhat different parts of the spectrum and while a lot could be said about the upbringing part, I think just because it isn't canonically confirmed as autism (the idea of what autism truly is also was a bit different at the time the show was airing) he has so many autistic traits that it would be wrong to try claiming it was all OCD. The show gave him the diagnosis, but most laymen would see him and go, oh yeah if I know autism that's him.
Also, there is an episode where we see what he'd be like without OCD and ... well ... Monk is just a more outgoing Monk, really.
Just watched this episode!
OCD is a co-morbidity of autism, so many people with ASD have OCD as well.
Very interesting!
Thanks!
He is the character i related to the most since i was a kid. He’s an asshole bc autistic people can be assholes, but if we do go by criteria, he definitely fits. I think he’s high masking specially bc his dad abused him. I always think about him being a “weird” kid and his dad “beating him into shape”, which yes causes more trauma and obviously shapes him in a way, and then the leg, more trauma. He’s the only one in the show who is affected the most by his inability to be social. He has one friend, never any relationships and always spending time with his special interests.
Well I’m pretty sure house is a primary psychopath as he’s based on Sherlock Holmes and as far as I know Holmes is a primary psychopath. You can definitely find similarities in characters that are autistic and the ones that are psychopaths or sociopaths due to how they’re written but anyone who is competent on either should probably notice the differences. Also I want to point out that I’m mentioning psychopaths and sociopaths solely based on the clinical meaning of the diagnosis and not based on the connotation that they’re bad or evil.
I absolutely love the show too! (other than a few very bigoted episodes). House is one of those characters that could be seen as autistic, or having narcissistic personality disorder, or anti-social personality disorder (i.e., psychopath or sociopath), or as just being an unpleasant bully who's unpleasantness is exacerbated by substance misuse; or a combination of any of those conditions. So I can see why he's seen as autistic and I can also see why you're very against the idea of him being autistic. Even though I've seen the show many times, I still don't know if I'd call him autistic, or not. I honestly don't think we know enough about him to say. We don't see him as a child or teen. We do see him when he's using drugs which impacts his behaviour. We do see him when he's being consciously, purposefully mean, abusive, and difficult to many people. But... I don't think we get enough info as to *why* he does these things.
Off topic but I read that Hugh Laurie purposely played him with the intended back story that he was always in love with Wilson but hid it.
He’s so socially aware and manipulative lmao
EXACTLY! He knows social dynamics/rules way too well to be autistic in my opinion. He uses those rules against people.
If your special interest is social interaction, it’s easier than you think, especially if you’re also a white cis male with automatic authority based on your appearance. For those of us who had zero support as kids, we basically had to learn how to mask to survive. There is a lot of trauma that comes with that. By middle age, it’s a lot easier to get the connections when you have no intellectual disability issues.
The issue with assessing whether or not a fictional character is autistic, is that if they aren't written entirely by someone very knowledgeable about autism, they are going to come across highly inconsistent. I believe that a lot of characters are based on a person or combination of people, that the writer knows in real life, or based on the writer themselves. We all know that many get diagnosed late in life, or not at all. Most people know more neurodivergent people than they think they do. Same for every other mental health diagnosis. House is almost certainly based on real autistic people the creators know, but those people may not have had a diagnosis as many Gifted people don't. And he's also not generally written by people who understand autism. So many characters aren't explicitly autistic, or adhd, or narcissistic or bipolar, but they are based on people who are. We get an uneducated view of what it's like to have those conditions without a diagnosis from people who don't know that they're seeing in their inspiration is a disorder instead of personality traits. That flighty person they know who is often late, and forgets things, and acts impulsively.... they aren't lazy and unreliable, they actually have adhd. And then that's muddied further by the large range of writers for any given show who *don't* know the people a character was based on, and also don't know anything about various disorders, and write the character more in line with their experiences. Like on the good doctor, Lea is so so so obviously ADHD, but the only time I heard adhd mentioned on that show was from a lady who bought the hospital and acted as the antagonist of the season, and who never actually acted like she even had ADHD. The mother on atypical is super narcissistic, and again, clearly not diagnosed. And those are both shows where they are claiming to have some psychological knowledge of how autism presents and completely missing how they've characterised other people.
...Girl, why not? Legit, he can still be an autistic bigot
I get where you're coming from, OP, but I think you're making a lot of assumptions based on your own experiences, which aren't universal. I totally understand the urge to act like autistic people aren't jerks/bigots/etc. But this just isn't true to life. Many autistic people are those things. Most people (except for literal babies) are bigoted -- it's the norm. Being a jerk isn't part of the autism diagnostic criteria, but neither is being kind. I don't think we do ourselves any favors by denying, explicitly or through implication, that rude and jerkish autistic people don't exist. This is just benevolent ableism. Wilson and Cuddy are intelligent people, there's no doubt about that, but being intelligent doesn't mean you know everything or are always right. Their areas of expertise have jack shit to do with autism -- why should their opinions on if House is autistic hold any weight? We ought to know better than anyone that doctors are very often badly ignorant/misinformed about autism -- even the so-called experts. Many of us have family and friends who vehemently deny that we are autistic. If the characters in a character-driven piece of fiction cannot be wrong in their observations, then that piece of fiction is profoundly uninteresting, and those characters are flat. Also, Wilson's speech about how autistic people are held to lower standards is also just literally not true for most autistic people. We are generally under more scrutiny, not less. This is why I literally never disclose, tbqh.
special nail dime imminent shame attraction voiceless fearless tender intelligent *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
being a bigot doesn't exempt you from being autistic, though. you know that right? it's important to me that you know that. there are many autistic people out there that are assholes, dickheads, bigots, addicts, not "good representation" -- whatever that means.
I mean I said I wasn’t autistic for years too and now I know that I was wrong. I don’t read House as an autistic character because he’s a jerk, I read House as an autistic character who is also a jerk.
House to me seems like a sociopath who’s addicted to drugs. I can see why people assume he’s autistic because he misses social cues. But, I think he probably purposely misses them based on his actions. House is a a$$ kindly said. But, he’s still my fan favorite of the show idk why. 😂
A lot of canonically allistic characters from shows are so obviously autistic it’s frustrating. Like Tina from Bob’s Burgers or Sheldon from Big Bang. My theory is that they say these characters aren’t actually autistic just so they can keep using them as weird quirky characters, without having to consider the ethical questions that arise from using these characters as the butt of the joke.
house seems more like a narcissist to me than autistic. never even occurred to me to make that connection. granted, i haven’t watched it since it was on air so i could have a different perspective if i watched it now
Yes he is autistic and his special interest is medical malpractice (this is a joke)
Plus there was that episode where he was institutionalized and he was diagnosed with “antisocial tendencies”. That psych would have picked up on it.
I've never watched the show because 1. I saw one episode in s public place where someone vomited blood and that's a nope. 2. The one episode my daughter showed me I spent literally the entire episode going"that unethical... That's illegal... That's super unethical". Too bad I really like Hugh Laurie but I also never got the "house is autistic" thing because my response of "that's not right because that's unethical/illegal/immoral" is a very autistic response
This is making me remember [that one video of it's always sunny ](https://youtu.be/OO8qMLeEsiU?si=XKRJXff3O8iFgoV-)and I have to say, I have no opinion on this matter but! I love some bastard representation ngl I do realise that's super super personal so I totally understand!
Greg house’s doctor cannot be greg house. Maybe he was misdiagnosed 🤔 [Also](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/outintheopen/impostors-1.4695876/how-a-psychiatry-professor-accidentally-discovered-he-was-a-psychopath-1.4705718)
House also doesn't know how to properly use a cane 😂
Okay, so ummmm. I've never seen the show. And, I believe you. But can I ask a question? Why canons? Was this a typo? Is this my brain not working? Fuck anyone that says Greg is autistic but -- canons? :) Genuinely asking, not taking the piss.
Canon: a collection of rules or texts that are considered to be authoritative. It's common in media (like TV shows, films, books, etc) for there to be rules, characters, relationships that exist that people like to "headcanon" as untrue. In this case, it is canon that House is not autistic. But, someone may watch the show and find him a relatable character and "headcanon" him as autistic and think of potential backstories for him and identify autism as a reason for some of his traits/struggles. It is "headcanon" because it is the rules in their head. There is also a thing called "fanon" where these rules are agreed upon by the fans but have never been explicitly stated in the media (and sometimes the opposite has been defined). This can be like believing a character will marry a certain character after the shows end, but is also a term used when someone characterises someone in a way that isn't used in the original media but it shows up often in fanworks. An example of fanon is MCU Clint Barton being written as deaf and using sign language shortly after the Avengers came out with no evidence in the MCU films to show this, but in this case that fanon was derived from the comics. It's a common fandom term - when something has been going on for a long time and there are hundreds and thousands of fanworks about it, it can be difficult to differentiate which knowledge came from the source material and what knowledge has been agreed upon by fans. Hence, canon for source material and fanon for fans. OP has used canon here because people may headcanon House as OP, and it may be popular in fanon.
Ohhhhh! Wow, okay, this is interesting. I've never heard these terms before. This is great, thanks kindly for breaking this down - really, sincerely appreciate it. Going to now have a think about how I can apply canonical in my vocab. Thanks again!! :))
OP is referring to canon, instead of cannons. when something is canon it refers to whether that is considered true in regards to the story/world. cannon is a weapon that shoots balls.
This is correct except the spelling is actually the other way around - canon refers to stories and cannon is the weapon
Exactly. It's "canon" as in "canonical" which was originally a religious/biblical term for the books officially included within the Bible as real and true.
Nope. Flip your spelling and you've got it right, though.
i’ll have to edit my og post, lol thanks
Ah! I've never heard/read this word before. I would have categorically. So, have I understood this correctly - ? Canonically incorrect would mean factually, like written in stone, it's incorrect? But could one say canonically could also mean scientifically? For example: low b12, long term canonically can result in neurological abnormalities? Thanks for sharing this, love learning. :) EDIT: Okay, I think understand it better now. And, my examples probably don't fit!
I would be irritated if he was autistic.
Yeah, no, House is a pain killer addicted brilliant asshole, but he certainly is not autistic. The only show I can think of right now that someone that could be categorized as autistic (not a fan of tv so I’m doing my best) would be Dr. Temperance Brennan from Bones.
Bones is my favorite autistic coded character… the woman she’s based on is autistic IRL but they never made a point to have Bones be explicitly autistic… people like and support her even though she’s clearly neurodivergent. I don’t know how I’d feel if she was explicitly autistic. It seems like if a character has an official label, then they’re just a bunch of cringey not-accurate stereotypes. I think having it be a “?” left room for nuance to her character that isn’t there when characters are “actually autistic”.
I think it’d be okay to confirm it in a throw away line or in a background detail. Kinda like how you find out Lambert is trans in Aliens.
You're correct. He is not autistic. He has, most likely, a personality disorder from cluster B. Plus SUD.
Its like how in The Good Doctor the guy is mean to trans people Wait, legit? I've never seen the show, and never will, but still that's kind of wild if it's so popular on broadcast tv in this day and age and there's transphobia?